Join IRisk Lab

IRisk Members

Join the IRisk Lab

Applications

We are delighted to announce four student research projects for fall 2026!

Project descriptions

Projects hosted by the Illinois Risk Lab:

  • Liquidity Cascades in Crypto Markets
  • InsureLLM-Building an Open Source AI Platform for Insurance
  • Insurance Regulation in Action-Data, Policy, and AI

Project co-hosted with the Department of Climate, Meteorology, & Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS):

  • BIRLIUR--A Pilot Study on Climate Catastrophe Risk

Please note, the four projects are divided between two separate application forms. Carefully review the project descriptions and submit the appropriate form.

Apply for projects hosted by IRisk Lab      Apply for project co-hosted with CliMAS

Why join IRisk Lab?

Students who join the IRisk Lab:

  • Learn how to conduct (academic) research and can closely work together with experts in the field;
  • Will meet experts from academia and the industry;
  • Will become experts in one of the actuarial subdomains;
  • May obtain funding to present their research work on Actuarial conferences and workshops;
  • Obtain visibility with their work on our website.

Each year, a prize will be awarded for the best research project!

Expectations

Students are required to register for course credit:

  • Undergraduate Students: ASRM 390
  • Graduate Students: ASRM 490

(3 or 4 credit hours) and should commit 10 to 15 hours/week on their project. The projects are one semester projects and can be extended to two semesters if necessary. If this happens, students should register for the same course for the second semester.

Students will work in small teams under the mentorship of a faculty member. The size and composition of the team can vary between different projects.

The minimum requirement for participation in the IRisk Lab is completion of Math 241 (Calculus III) with a grade of B or better. Each project will have his own extra requirements.

It is expected that the team holds weekly meetings and works in collaboration with the mentor. The mentor will assist them during the research projects. The mentor will meet usually every few weeks (at least monthly).

The goal of the research projects is:

  • To work in close collaboration with the other team members,
  • To solve problems together by reading documents and asking questions to each other,
  • To communicate results, by writing a final report and presenting the results to the other research groups.
  • The final report will be posted on this website.

Requirements

The research group is expected to have regular reports, describing the progress of the project and the future steps. This should be delivered to the mentor.

At the end of the Project, each Research Project should have a final report:

  • Describing methodology and results,
  • The report should be original, no plagiarism is allowed,
  • The report should be well written and clear to a general actuarial audience,
  • Each group has to submit one report.

In addition to research activity, IRisk Lab members are encouraged to participate in seminar activities.